A noble metal single crystalline nanowire has high chemical stability, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, thus embodying high utility in use for electric, magnetic and/or optical devices and sensors.
Specifically, silver ‘Ag’ has the highest electrical and thermal conductivities among all metals and exhibits the highest surface-enhanced Raman efficiency in a visible region, thereby embodying excellent optical properties.
In the case where Ag is formed into a nanowire, high development may be expected in a variety of applications including micro-electronic devices and/or transparent electrodes, and so forth. Moreover, utilization thereof in optical, chemical and/or biological sensors may also be anticipated.
However, in order to utilize Ag nanowires in various applications, it is very important to provide technologies for mass-production of nanowires having a uniform thickness, a clear surface, a high aspect ratio, well-defined dimension, a small size deviation, etc., under simplified conditions.
As described above, although Ag nanowires has high utility for electric, magnetic and/or optical devices and sensors, for instance, a method for synthesis of Ag nanowires using a liquid chemical process commonly used in the related art, disclosed in US Laid-Open Patent No. 2007-0034052, entails problems such as difficulties in controlling a size and/or morphology of the nanowires, a significant size deviation of the fabricated nanowires, an extended reaction time, extreme difficulty in mass-production, and so forth.